Va. Schools Ease Racial Results Gap

Local educators say analyzing data of the performance of black and white students has helped their schools narrow the achievement divide.

Three local schools have significantly narrowed the achievement gap between black and white students, according to a recent report.

Riverside Elementary School in Newport News and King's Fork Middle School and Nansemond River High School in Suffolk are among 38 Virginia schools singled out for narrowing the gap between the 2003-04 and 2004-05 school years.

While these local schools have made progress in narrowing the gap, they and most other local schools still have a long way to go before it is closed entirely.

The report, produced by Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services, recognized schools that narrowed the gap by 5 or more percentage points. To narrow the gap, black students have to improve their scores more than white students on state tests.

Introduction of the federal No Child Left Behind law in 2002 has shined the spotlight on how minority and poor students are falling behind nationwide.

The law holds schools responsible for making sure that all students, regardless of their race or how much money their parents make, perform to the same standards in the classroom. Schools nationwide struggle with trying to make that happen.

Teachers and administrators at the three local schools singled out by Standard & Poor's say constantly looking at data of how different groups of students are doing and then giving them extra help has helped them narrow the achievement gap.

Teachers at King's Fork Middle School, which closed the gap in the eighth grade by 12 percentage points, said they give extra tutoring to students who are falling behind.

"We use any time in school to go over the material," said Lela Joyner, an eighth-grade English teacher there.

Students with low grades and test scores are pulled out of physical education, band and computer classes to receive tutoring by their English, math, history and science teachers, Joyner said.

Teachers also give up their planning periods to tutor students who need extra help. These students are mostly black or poor, said Jaime Butts, a sixth-grade English and history teacher.

King's Fork is one of five schools in the state that narrowed the gap between black and white students as well as for students eligible for free or reduced lunches and the rest of the students.

Francis Mallory Elementary School and Paul Burbank Elementary School in Hampton, Hardy Elementary School in Isle of Wight County and Forest Glen Middle School in Suffolk also narrowed the gap between low-income students and other students.

The Poquoson and West Point school districts are among 12 school districts also recognized for having higher percentages of students who scored at the proficient level or above on state reading and math tests than other districts with similar numbers of economically disadvantaged students.

Riverside Elementary School in Newport News narrowed the achievement gap between black and white fifth-grade students by 14.5 percentage points.

School administrators and teachers look at data of students' test scores and class work throughout the school year to see which groups of students are falling behind, said Riverside Principal Shannon Panko.

Teachers work with those students, the majority of whom are black, in small reading groups and assign them student tutors from Christopher Newport University and a teacher buddy to eat lunch with them and check on their progress.

But principals and teachers at schools that have narrowed the gap realize they still have a long way to go.

Last school year, 71 percent of black students at King's Fork Middle School passed the state's English tests, compared with 80 percent of white students.

At Riverside, the gap is even larger. Sixty-eight percent of black students passed the state's reading tests, compared with 94 percent of white students.

"We still fail," said Joyner at King's Fork. "We have kids that don't come to school very often, but we do the best we can." *

NARROWING THE GAP

The percentage points by which these schools reduced the achievement gap between black and white students between the 2003-04 and 2004-05 school years:

Newport News

* Riverside Elementary School: 14.5 percentage points

Suffolk

* King's Fork Middle School: 11.8 percentage points

* Nansemond River High School: 16.4 percentage points

ACHIEVING SUCCESS

These schools narrowed the gap between low-income students and others between 2003-04 and 2004-05: